Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the 9th hole as the Pro-Am gets underway at the Frys.com Open at the CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, Ca. on Wednesday October 5, 2011.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the 9th hole as the Pro-Am gets...

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Tiger Woods stops to sign a few autographs after his round in the Pro-Am at the Frys.com Open at the CordeValle Country Club in San Martin, Ca. on Wednesday October 5, 2011.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Tiger Woods stops to sign a few autographs after his round in the...

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Ernie Els tees watches his approach shot to the 4th hole as he plays in the Pro-Am at the Frys.com Open at the CordeValle Country Club in San Martin, Ca. on Wednesday October 5, 2011.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Ernie Els tees watches his approach shot to the 4th hole as he...

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Tiger Woods, followed by his caddie Joe LaCava as they walk from the 6th tee, as the Pro-Am gets underway at the Frys.com Open at the CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, Ca. on Wednesday October 5, 2011.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Tiger Woods, followed by his caddie Joe LaCava as they walk from...

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Tigers Woods hits his approach shot to the 5th green under the watchful eye of his swing coach Sean Foley, as the Pro-Am gets underway at the Frys.com Open at the CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, Ca. on Wednesday October 5, 2011.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Tigers Woods hits his approach shot to the 5th green under the...

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Ernie Els with a birdie put on the 3rd hole as he plays in the Pro-Am at the Frys.com Open at the CordeValle Country Club in San Martin, Ca. on Wednesday October 5, 2011.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Ernie Els with a birdie put on the 3rd hole as he plays in the...

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Ernie Els tees watches his approach shot to the 5th hole as he plays in the Pro-Am at the Frys.com Open at the CordeValle Country Club in San Martin, Ca. on Wednesday October 5, 2011.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Ernie Els tees watches his approach shot to the 5th hole as he...

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The Pro-Am group which includes Ben Crane make their way up the 6th fairway at the Frys.com Open at the CordeValle Country Club in San Martin, Ca. on Wednesday October 5, 2011.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

The Pro-Am group which includes Ben Crane make their way up the 6th...

-- The rain relented for Tiger Woods' pro-am journey around CordeValle on Wednesday. He teed off at 8 a.m. and played most of the front nine under blue skies and glorious sunshine, weaving through the picturesque foothills of San Martin.

It was an idyllic setting, perfect for a low-key round, and Woods mostly looked relaxed and cheery - at least until he three-putted No. 9 and walked off the green scowling, his all-too-familiar expression this year.

This seems like an unlikely time and place - in October, on a course hosting a PGA Tour event for the second time - to learn deep truths about one of the greatest golfers ever. But the next few days at the Frys.com Open will reveal plenty about where Woods stands in his latest attempt to reshape his swing and his game.

He's finally healthy, able to practice without limitations. The 132-man field includes few top players, with only three members of the top 50 in the world rankings (none of them named Tiger, now at No. 51). The course is not especially difficult, with Woods predicting low numbers if the weather cooperates.

Or put another way: If he doesn't finish in the top 20, sound the alarm bells.

Woods has completed two tournaments since the Masters in April, and neither went well. He tied for 37th at the Bridgestone Invitational in August, then shot 77-73 in missing the cut the next week at the PGA Championship. He hadn't worked much on his redesigned swing, given lingering injuries to his left knee and Achilles tendon.

Now there are no excuses. Woods made it clear he has regained the strength and explosiveness in his leg. He couldn't have even walked CordeValle's rolling hills earlier this year, he said, but he made the 7,368-yard trek without any signs of trouble Wednesday.

"Not a whole lot of prep time," Woods said of his performance at the PGA. "This is different. I've had a chance to prepare."

He spoke at his packed, pre-tournament news conference, offering many of the same bland, guarded responses we've come to expect, but there actually were a couple of semi-illuminating and entertaining moments, beyond Woods acknowledging he plans to attend Saturday's Colorado-Stanford football game.

One reporter asked about comments from Nick Faldo and Greg Norman in recent weeks, each of whom predicted Woods will not add to his total of 14 major championship victories. This question prompted him to shift into his best I'm-Tiger-and-you're-not tone.

"It's not the first time I've heard that," he said, smirking.

And his thoughts on the remarks?

"I've kept on winning them," he said.

This approach - akin to saying, "Look at the scoreboard, pal" - worked back in the day, but Woods is no longer winning majors. If he doesn't win the Masters in April, he will arrive at the Olympic Club for the 2012 U.S. Open without a major triumph in four full years.

It's difficult to know if Woods truly is close to rediscovering his touch, but it's impossible not to sense he thinks he's close to a breakthrough. He's restless, no doubt, because he's bearing down on two years since his last victory, at the Australian Masters in November 2009.

Soon thereafter, he rammed his luxury SUV into a Florida fire hydrant and his world imploded. The ensuing revelations of infidelity led to feverish tabloid scrutiny, a much-publicized divorce, the downward spiral in his golf game and the loss of five major endorsements.

That last piece of the puzzle turned around a bit Wednesday, when Rolex announced it had agreed to an endorsement contract with Woods. That represents his first major endorsement since his fall from grace; his agent, Mark Steinberg, suggested more deals are in the works.

All of this - the business side, his plunging world ranking, his chances of breaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors (he needs five more) - comes back to Woods fixing his swing. He insisted the "major overhaul" work with instructor Sean Foley is done, saying now he needs simply to fine tune things.

That wasn't the case when he returned from a four-month absence and wobbled through the Bridgestone and PGA.

"It's easy to come back from a layoff when you already know what to do," Woods said. "But I'm implementing a new swing, and in order to do that, you have to get the reps. You have to hit thousands of balls, so it feels natural - and now I've done that."

One piece of evidence pointing to progress: Woods recently shot a course-record 62 at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla., near his new home. That's a loud number on any course, but it's also nothing like shooting 62 in a professional tournament.

If he posts the same score today, or plants himself in contention down the stretch Sunday, then it will be legitimate to wonder if he's back. This is not the Masters or U.S. Open, by any stretch, but the Frys.com Open suddenly shapes up as a tidy barometer for one Tiger Woods.